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List of contents
Table of Contents
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Preface
Part I The Media of Early Civilization
- The Earliest Precursor of Writing, Denise Schmandt-Besserat
- Media in Ancient Empires, Harold Innis
- Civilization Without Writing – The Incas and the Quipu, Marcia Ascher and Robert Ascher
- The Origin of Writing, Andrew Robinson
Part II The Tradition of Western Literacy
- The Greek Legacy, Eric Havelock
- Writing and the Alphabet Effect, Robert K. Logan
- Writing Restructures Consciousness, Walter Ong
- Communication and Faith in the Middle Ages, James Burke and Robert Ornstein
Part III The Print Revolution
- Paper and Block Printing – From China to Europe, Thomas F. Carter
- The Invention of Printing, Lewis Mumford
- Early Modern Literacies, Harvey J. Graff
- Sensationalism in Early Printed News, Mitchell Stephens
Part IV Electricity Creates the Wired the World
- Time, Space and the Telegraph, James W. Carey
- The New Journalism, Michael Shudson
- The Telephone Takes Command, Claude S. Fischer
- Dream Worlds of Consumption, Rosalynd Williams
- Wireless World, Stephen Kern
Part V Image and Sound
- Early Photojournalism, Ulrich Keller
- Inscribing Sound, Lisa Gittelman
- The Making of the Phonograph, Jonathan Sterne
- Early Motion Pictures, Daniel Czitrom
- Movies Talk, Scott Eyman
Part VI Radio Days
- The Public Voice of Radio, John Durham Peters
- Early Radio, Susan J. Douglas
- The Golden Age of Programming, Christopher Sterling and John M. Kittross
- Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds Broadcast, Paul Heyer
- Radio Voices, Michelle Hilmes
- Radio in the Television Age, Peter Fornatale and Joshua E. Mills
Part VII TV Times
- Television Begins, William Boddy
- The New Languages, Edmund Carpenter
- Making Room for TV, Lynn Spigel
- From Turmoil to Tranquility in 1960s Television, Gary Edgarton
- Boob Tubes, Fans, and Addicts, Richard Butsch
Part VIII New Media and Old in The Digital Age
- How Media Became New, Lev Manovich
- Popularizing the Internet, Janet Abbate
- The World Wide Web, Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin
- A Cultural History of Web 2.0, Alice E. Marwick
- Social Media Retweets History, Tom Standage
Discussion Questions
Suggested Readings
About the author
Paul Heyer is Professor Emeritus in the Communication Studies Department at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.
Peter Urquhart is Associate Professor in the Communication Studies Department at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.
Summary
Now in its 7th edition, Communication in History reveals how media has been influential in both maintaining social order and as powerful agents of change. Thirty-eight contributions from a wide range of voices offer instructors the opportunity to customize their courses while challenging students to build upon their own knowledge and skill sets. From stone-age symbols and early writing to the Internet and social media, readers are introduced to an expansive, intellectually enlivening study of the relationship between human history and communication media.
Additional text
This is an excellent selection of seminal work by key scholars in the field of communications history. Introductions to each section connect technological developments in communications to the social, cultural and economic structures within a particular historical period. Excerpts are well-chosen to offer students accessible scholarship from a variety of disciplines.
-June M. Madeley, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, Canada
